subito and Thieme Agree to Cooperate on Delivering Content From Electronic Books

subito and Thieme Publishing Group have initiated a project to jointly develop a document delivery system for electronic books. As a result, university libraries can make digital book content from Thieme available on reading terminals, and personnel from universities and research institutions can integrate it into their intranets and learning platforms. subito has made its infrastructure available for delivering book content direct from the publisher.

In 2009, more than 40,000 active customers used subito’s document delivery service for journal articles. Service subscribers now have the opportunity to get content from books, published by Thieme, promptly delivered to their computers either page by page or in their entirety. Complete books or select content can thus be licensed, allowing for use that is in accordance with legal requirements.

All available content will be enhanced with extensive metadata, which enables fast and specifically targeted searches for users. The content will be available as high resolution PDF files, thereby eliminating scanning cost for libraries. Ordering and delivery as well as billing will be processed by subito.

The pilot project between subito and Thieme has clearly defined conditions of use. Within the framework of the collaboration a flexible and unitized pricing system will be developed that is based on groups of users, duration of use, and volume of content accessed.

The collaboration to deliver journal articles has now been expanded to include medical and scientific books from Thieme Publishing Group. Both partners will continuously evaluate the project and further develop it in accordance with user needs. The subito service is also available to other publishers.